U.S. set to disappoint Asia with downgraded delegation for Bangkok summits

David Brunnstrom

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not pictured) at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has downgraded its participation in back-to-back Asia-Pacific summits in Bangkok next week, a move bound to disappoint Asian partners worried by China’s expanding influence.

 

While President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile in mid-November, the most senior official from his administration who will be in Bangkok next week when Thailand hosts the annual East Asian Summit and U.S.-ASEAN Summit will be Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the White House said in a statement.

 

Ross is scheduled to lead the U.S. delegation to an Indo-Pacific Business Forum grouping government officials and business executives on the sidelines of the EAS.

 

Trump, a Republican, has named White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien as his special envoy to the summits, the White House said.

David Stilwell, the State Department’s assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, will also be in Bangkok, but the U.S. delegation will be significantly outranked by other regional players including, Japan, India and China.

 

Despite declaring Indo-Pacific “the single most consequential region for America’s future” in a Pentagon strategy report this year, the Trump administration has steadily scaled back U.S. presence at the EAS and ASEAN gatherings.

 

While Trump attended the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Manila in 2017, he has never attended a full EAS meeting. Vice President Mike Pence represented the United States at the meetings in Singapore last year.

 

Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, by contrast attended every U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia summit from 2011, apart from 2013, when he canceled due to a government shutdown at home.

 

Asian diplomats say the lack of top-level U.S. representation in Bangkok will be a significant if not unexpected disappointment in a region increasingly concerned about China’s fast-expanding influence.

 

Trump plans to attend the primarily economics-focused meeting of APEC in Chile, where he has said he hopes to sign the first part of a deal with China to resolve a prolonged and damaging trade war.

 

However, diplomats and analysts say Trump’s absence in Bangkok will raise questions about U.S. commitment to the region, especially after his withdrawal from the 11-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement in 2017, shortly after he took office.

 

Last year, Trump, who is currently embroiled in a congressional impeachment inquiry, sent Pence in his place to attend APEC as well as the ASEAN and the East Asia summits.

 

Matthew Goodman, senior adviser for Asian economics at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, called U.S. attendance plans for Bangkok “a real issue.”

 

“As Woody Allen said, either 80 or 85 percent of life is showing up. And in the Indo-Pacific, that’s definitely true,” he told a news briefing previewing the summits. “If you show up, you’re given praise, whatever you actually say or do. If you don’t show up, it’s a real problem.”

 

Amy Searight, who was a senior defense official under Obama and is now a senior adviser at CSIS, said the EAS summit had become the premier strategic dialogue forum for the Asia Pacific, drawing leaders from China, India, Japan and South Korea, as well as those of the 10 ASEAN, or Association of Southeast Asian Nations, states.

 

“It’ll be headlines in the region that no senior American leader is coming to a summit with 17 other leaders from the Indo-Pacific,” she said.

 

“And I think it really does call into question ... how serious this administration is in its Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy,” she said. “And it really just calls into question the reliability of the United States as a strategic partner to this region.”

 

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-30

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15 hours ago, webfact said:

Asian diplomats say the lack of top-level U.S. representation in Bangkok will be a significant if not unexpected disappointment in a region increasingly concerned about China’s fast-expanding influence.

Fend for yourself. 

They will be even more disappointed, when they discover Wilbur Ross can't attend a meeting longer than 30 minutes without falling asleep.

They should send Guiliani. 

21 minutes ago, d2b2 said:

They will be even more disappointed, when they discover Wilbur Ross can't attend a meeting longer than 30 minutes without falling asleep.

He'll feel right at home with some of the other ASEAN leaders.

16 hours ago, webfact said:

a move bound to disappoint Asian partners worried by China’s expanding influence.

This one got me interested; who'd be those 'partners' ?  Vietnam is the only Asian nation not in bed with the Chinese as far as I can see.

38 minutes ago, d2b2 said:

They will be even more disappointed, when they discover Wilbur Ross can't attend a meeting longer than 30 minutes without falling asleep.

He should be seated right next to Prawit then. The two could support each other, literally.

16 hours ago, webfact said:

Asian diplomats say the lack of top-level U.S. representation in Bangkok will be a significant if not unexpected disappointment in a region increasingly concerned about China’s fast-expanding influence.

Why should U.S. government personnel attend any meeting in Asia when Thailand is contributing to the increase of China's growth of expansionism by their free visa admission to the country and the contracts they have concerning such items as the high-speed trains as well as becoming partners with them regarding the purchase of naval craft, which Thailand really has no use for, like the aircraft carrier they purchased.

'nuf sed.

4 minutes ago, wotsdermatter said:

Why should U.S. government personnel attend any meeting in Asia when Thailand is contributing to the increase of China's growth of expansionism by their free visa admission to the country and the contracts they have concerning such items as the high-speed trains as well as becoming partners with them regarding the purchase of naval craft, which Thailand really has no use for, like the aircraft carrier they purchased.

'nuf sed.

too much said, not enough thought through

Sounds like you have decided US has lost Asia, might as well give it all up. US loss of coherent policy, people in high places who are clueless doesn't instill confidence....

"Own goal" by Trump pulling out of TPP sure didn't help

Make America Great Irrelevant.

Hot money inflows have destroyed the USD vs Baht.  Rename the country for its new master—Chiland. 

US pulling out all the stops to keep our farmers buying their poisons.

2 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Make America Great Irrelevant.

Agreed.  Let's follow our British cousins in their gradual withdrawal from world affairs.  

4 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

This one got me interested; who'd be those 'partners' ?  Vietnam is the only Asian nation not in bed with the Chinese as far as I can see.

Vietnamese were always smarter & quick to catch on.

6 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Fend for yourself. 

Watching the USA crumble